Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka to Head Standing Committee on Rural Development, Shashi Tharoor the Panel On External Affairs

New Delhi: Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka will head the parliamentary standing committee on rural development, while senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor will lead the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs and Digvijaya Singh will head the panel on education, Congress party sources said on Thursday.

Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi will lead the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture.

According to reports, the Congress has forwarded the names of these four leaders to head the four department-related parliamentary standing committees it has been assigned to head.

The official notification on the chairmanship of the parliamentary standing committees is expected to be declared soon.

The Congress will chair the Department Related Standing Committee on External Affairs; Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing; Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in the Lok Sabha; and Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports in the Rajya Sabha.

This was decided after discussions between the government and the opposition over the panels’ chairship.

The Congress will chair the crucial committee on external affairs after a gap of five years. Tharoor had also headed the standing committee on external affairs between September 2014 and May 2019.